In the mood for Chinese but don’t feel like leaving the house or being bloated the next day?

This is a great make-at-home version of everything we love about American-Chinese food: sweet, salty, comforting. It’s also surprisingly fast and easy to throw together, especially when you use thinly sliced beef, pork or (like I did here), venison.

You don’t need to be an ingredient hound to make an Asian-inspired meal. While I will often use crazy and hard-to-find spices in my recipes because that’s how I roll, this is one recipe where I stick to the basics: garlic, ginger, soy sauce. You don’t even have to find an Asian grocery store to make this dish. This does, however, mean that you can’t skimp. Most grocery stores will sell you a length of fresh ginger. Use it, don’t substitute the powdered stuff you use for baking.

When I made this, I found that I had cut the meat into pieces that were way too big. Since I didn’t use one of the more tender cuts of elk, it resulted in a lot of chewing. If you’re just swimming in tenderloin or backstrap to the point of being tired of eating steaks (sounds crazy but hey, it happens), use that. Otherwise, any thinly sliced cut of venison will do. I found the dish works much better with thin slices (not to mention it cooks up faster, however, that marinade does need to reduce a bit which is where most of your time will be spent).

If you want to incorporate some veg, I would make extra sauce and toss the vegetables in at the last minute so they don’t overcook. If you’re doing something sturdier like broccoli or carrots, throw them in about 3-5 minutes before pulling everything out to add the honey. For something more delicate like bell peppers, you really just need to blanch them in the marinade, as the heat from the final sticky glaze will continue to cook them as you toss it all together.

Sticky Venison

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1lb venison steak (thinly sliced)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 " ginger (grated)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 lime (in wedges)
• chopped green onion (for garnish)
• steamed rice (for serving)

Optional

• toasted sesame seeds (for garnish)

Directions

Step 1

Combine the sliced venison, water, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer, stirring occasionally to evenly coat the meat and to prevent burning.

Step 2

Once the meat is cooked through and the marinade reduced (about 10-15 minutes) pull the meat out and transfer to a plate. Add the honey to the saucepan and cook, being careful not to let it burn until it becomes a sticky glaze, about 4-5 minutes. Add the meat back in and coat evenly. Garnish with fresh squeezed limes, green onion, sesame seeds and serve over rice.

Non-game substitution: Sliced anything will really work with this dish, beef, chicken, pork, etc. The original recipe actually used chicken wings, which was delicious but extremely messy to eat.

Vegetarian substitution: This is a great way to do tofu, just make sure you’re using the firmest you can find. I’d suggest cubes, and even lightly frying them before making it just so everything holds up.